The Notre Dame football team came away with the victory on Saturday against Purdue, and here are the offensive grades from Week 3.
The Notre Dame football team had some major issues on the offensive side of the ball, there’s no getting away from that reality. These issues stem from the offensive line play, but as long as the offensive line is a mess the rest of the offense will suffer. It’s simple. If you don’t block, your quarterback won’t have time to throw to receivers.
If you don’t block, your running backs will be on the ground before they get going at all.
The Purdue game saw Notre Dame put up 27 points and 343 yards of total offense. 223 of those yards were passing and 120 yards rushing. The Irish were just 4/17 on third down, a symptom of not being able to block and often being in third and long. The Irish only held 25:49 minutes of possession.
Recognize now that the box score is a little bit misleading, due to most of Notre Dame’s points coming on explosive plays. The reality is that Notre Dame could not put together a sustained drive against Purdue.
So, how did each position group grade out against Purdue?
Notre Dame Football: Week 3 Offensive Grades vs. Purdue
Quarterbacks
Jack Coan is limited at quarterback. That’s something that we all should have known before the season started. His arm isn’t as strong as a lot of elite quarterbacks, and he isn’t mobile. He also has some strengths that have been on display. Coan is a good decision-maker, who rarely makes terrible mistakes, for instance.
But, Coan simply can not succeed behind this current offensive line. He just can’t escape the rush, especially when it’s immediately on him. He might make good decisions under pressure, but there is no way to do that from his back.
Add in newfound accuracy issues, possibly due to his dislocated finger, and you have a quarterback who threw for under 50%.
A lot of talk has started, calling for Tyler Buchner to get more playing time. The benefit of that is that Buchner is mobile, meaning he can extend plays in the face of pressure. The concern is that he’s a true freshman who didn’t play his senior year of high school, so he’s still adjusting to the speed of the college game.
Certainly, when he does get into the game, it would be nice to see Buchner throw more.
Grade= C-
Notre Dame Football: Week 3 Offensive Grades vs. Purdue
Running Backs
Life has been difficult for the running backs this season, which was a bit of a surprise given the mentality of this program the first few years. Still, behind the current offensive line, stretch plays are difficult and there isn’t much in the way of holes to run through. This means that we are grading running backs on a scale.
Throughout this game, Kyren Williams got things going though. He caught a long touchdown pass on 4th down, which gave the Irish a ton of momentum. Later, he’d seal the deal with a dagger of a run that bumped up his stats for the day. Given all that, this unit was probably the strongest of any for the Irish against Purdue.
Blocking and special teams were also strong for this unit, as both Williams and Tyree were strong in blitz pickup, while the return game was strong when Williams was given a chance to return the game
Grade= B
Notre Dame Football: Week 3 Offensive Grades vs. Purdue
Wide Receivers/Tight Ends
Maybe it’s how quiet Michael Mayer was, or how Kevin Austin didn’t have a single catch. Maybe it’s just Braden Lenzy’s dropped touchdown pass. Who knows, but this unit was just not good today. It looked like the 2020 receivers again, and after a couple of exciting games from the receivers, the performance against Purdue was just disappointing.
Avery Davis did have a respectable day, largely taking the place of Kevin Austin. Braden Lenzy also had a handful of grabs, but his day will largely be remembered for his bad drop. After that, there wasn’t anything that happened to talk about. They were the only two receivers to catch a pass.
There were a couple of drops, but by and large, there was just a complete lack of anything from this unit. It was a rough day.
This was a rough game, and this unit can be so much better. They’ll need to bounce back against Wisconsin in a big way.
Grade= D
Notre Dame Football: Week 3 Offensive Grades vs. Purdue
Offensive Line
I might be generously giving the offensive line a D-, but the truth is that they played better against Purdue than they did against Toledo, at least when you consider the quality of the competition. Being on your third starting left tackle in three games, due to injury, is also incredibly difficult to manage and it makes you feel bad for them trying to figure things out.
Still, the performance from the offensive line today was abysmal. They allowed four sacks, including one on the first play of the game. Even when they didn’t allow sacks, Purdue’s pass rush lived in the backfield for the entire game. It was like there was nothing that they could do about it at all.
Notre Dame Football vs. Purdue: 3 Studs and 3 Duds from Week 3
Reviewing the Notre Dame football vs. Purdue game for three studs and three duds on the Notre Dame side of the game, on both offense and defense.
Besides the sacks, the defensive line allowed three other tackles for loss, making the total on the day at seven allowed. It wouldn’t be until the end of the game when there was any push at all in the running game.
Grade= D-